Summer distractions

Has it really been 2 months since my last post?  Summer finally appeared and has been pulling me outside to play every moment that I'm not working.  I've been lucky enough to fly some wonderful tandems lately which I suppose is still "working" but somehow it feels like too much fun to be a job!

Spiralling down after a great flight

Paragliding is the funnest thing ever.

But the theme swimming around my mind today is distraction.  The lawnmower making noise outside is distracting. The sun shining through my windows is distracting.  The laundry pile growing bigger each day is distracting.

As usual, I can easily apply this topic to paragliding.  Distraction plays a big part in the air.  You start off the day with great ambitions to fly high, fly far and fly for hours.  Fifteen minutes into your flight you are distracted by your tummy growling..."Why didn't I eat on the way to the hill?" you say to yourself as you try & think of anything besides food.  Another 15 minutes later your bladder distracts you, even though you were totally fine before launching.  Then you remember that you were supposed to go grocery shopping so you had lunch for work tomorrow.  Maybe you should go land now...after all you've had a nice half hour flight already...

That's been happening far too often lately.  It's time to stop blaming the 'new' full-time job - I've been working 40 hours each week for six months now.  It's time to stop trying to figure out how to "balance" everything and just...be.  It's time to get back in the zone, to be so focused in flight that those distractions don't even stand a chance of coming up.  To get into that wonderful meditative state when you are soaring through the sky that you lose all track of time...to be in that place where you turn automatically in the invisible lifting air even before you are aware of the gentle tug on your wing from that same thermal.

Focus.  The opposite of distraction.  I've been moving towards focus again instead of indulging in the easy excuse of distraction.  Meditating daily, concentrating on the task at hand whether it be organizing my warehouse at work, tackling the huge pile of junk on my living room table or practicing strong wind kiting when it's blown out at the hill.  Focus is better for you than balance, as it allows you to enjoy the moment instead of worrying about the other things that are not being done at that exact point in time.

I find that setting goals helps me focus on specific areas, and am really enjoying the process again.  I've decided to compete in the 2013 National Paragliding Championships this year and am excited to be completely out of my element (flat land flying as opposed to the mountain flying that I know).  It's given me a new focus in my paragliding which is just the push out of my comfort zone that I needed.  At last year's competition I brought so many distractions along with me that I lost focus before I even started.  This year I am bringing a whole new attitude and am going with the goal to simply enjoy every single moment.  Now that is a goal I'm looking forward to achieving.